God is God and We are Not

“God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?”  Numbers 23:19

It always astonishes me at the ideas that folks have about God, that is, ideas that are not found in His word.  If anyone wants to know what God is like, that information can be found in scripture.  Where else can anyone get an accurate picture of God and know what He requires of His creation?  It is true that some of the Bible is difficult to understand, but what is written about God, about His Son, Jesus Christ, and about the way to receive eternal life is really clear with no ambiguity at all.  I am certainly not the most intelligent person that has ever walked on this earth, but if I can understand how to be born again and become a member of God’s family, then other folks should also be able to understand.  Personally, I think a lot more people do understand scripture than they will admit; they just don’t like what they read.  Mark Twain said, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.”  There are likely many folks in that same boat.  However, the boat is sinking, and they better have a life preserver, known as Jesus Christ, if they are going to survive.

There is one religious group who believe that God was once a man who became God.  The logical question to ask is, “If God was once a man, who made Him?”  There is absolutely nothing in scripture to support that idea.  I don’t know why they believe that.  The only thing that I can think of is that they are attempting to equate God with mortal man.  If that was true, and it definitely is not true, then no one has any hope at all of heaven.  I know that one day there will be an antichrist, who, as far as we know, will be Satan embodied in a mortal man, but he will be no match for the Almighty.  This group also believes that God and Jesus had several wives.  They believe that human marriage will continue into the afterlife, but the Bible specifically tells us that no one will be married to other people in heaven because true believers will be the bride of Christ, the eternal Groom.  We will be LIKE the angels in heaven, not become angels, but be individual servants and friends of the Lord (Matthew 22:29-30).  These adherents to this religion also believe that only those who obey their particular gospel and do good works will be redeemed.  Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9 that salvation only comes by grace through faith, thus works have nothing to do with being born again.

There is another group of people who also believe that to have eternal life in heaven or, if not quite reaching their standard of perfection according to their doctrine, heaven on earth, one must adhere to their beliefs and do works acceptable to them to “earn” salvation.  They also believe that sinners will be annihilated, that is, they don’t believe in hell or eternal punishment.  Again, we know that works can never save a person.  Scripture plainly tells us that there is a hell in which all who do not repent and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior will spend eternity in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15).  God will hold all people who have not received forgiveness through Christ accountable for their sin.

One more example of error that is taught across the globe also embodies some extremely anti-biblical ideas.  This one believes that before Jesus was conceived in Mary, He was not God’s Son.  All people can go to heaven if they keep the commandments of this particular religion.  When Jesus returns to earth, He will give those who died in sin a second chance.  We know that it is imperative to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.  In Luke 22:70, when asked if He was the Son of God, Jesus answered, “I am as you say”.  Even Satan’s demons recognized Jesus as the Son of God (Luke 4:41).  In Genesis 1:26, Jesus was with God when God created man, saying, “Let Us make man in our image”.  And again, works play no part in salvation.  There are no second chances after death.  If one dies in his or her sins, he or she will suffer eternal punishment and separation from God forever (John 8:24).

The common denominator among these false religions is that they all believe they can receive eternal life without God.  Each one of them substitutes man for God.  The first believes that God was once a man, so they are just as good as Him.  The second believes that one only has to follow their doctrine to be saved.  And the third one believes that as well and also that belief in Jesus is not required.  None of them stress repentance of sin or a commitment to Christ, but rather a commitment to their religion.  There are many more false religions with similar beliefs.  We also have churches now who used to preach the gospel but have watered it down to sooth the feelings of people so that they become more accepting of their sinful lifestyles, tickling their ears, so to speak (II Timothy 4:3-4).  I am afraid that time has come which Paul wrote about.  So far, we live in a nation where we are free to believe whatever we want to believe, but what we believe does matter.